I wish this little area was configurable, and key-mappable so you can quickly access envelopes. Going into that little menu over and over is tedious. This isn't totally thought through (how to delete, how to save defaults, etc), but it's an idea:

I use the transpose and pan buttons everytime, and your ideas about improving the automations' handling is really attractive, I wish ableton to get their shit together and sit back for a few minutes, listening to their valuable userbase...